Lieberman: One Shoe Drops.

Senator Joe Lieberman, the Independent from Connecticut, has endorsed Senator John McCain, the Republican from Arizona, for the Presidency. Does anyone doubt now that, should McCain win the GOP nomination against the current odds, he will make Lieberman his running mate in an allegedly bipartisan campaign? Will anyone doubt that such a team can only stand on a platform of, shall we say, compassionate warmongering? I don't doubt that Lieberman agrees with McCain's position, that we must kill untold numbers of "Islamofascists" until they acquiesce in permanent international interference in their affairs, only we mustn't torture them!

Objectively speaking, I can't condemn Liberman's action the way many others will. After his ordeal of 2006, he doesn't really owe the Democratic party anything. He is probably a more genuine independent than Bernie Sanders is. If a McCain-Lieberman ticket sowed confusion among conventional partisans, it would be a good thing even though they shouldn't be let anywhere near the White House. But this is all unlikely. McCain is at best the fourth ranking Republican candidate, and more likely fifth is people still believe that Fred Thompson is alive.

It amuses me that people think McCain be helped by newspaper endorsements. Aren't newspapers a dying medium? That's what we're told, but the same people who say such things still find significance in newspaper editors' endorsements. For political reporters it's like the latest piece of celebrity gossip. Elections are being covered more and more like celebrity scandals. I watched Mitt Romney on Meet The Press this morning (see above) and hardly heard a question about his policy proposals. Instead, Tim Russert kept asking what he thought about things others said about him, or things Romney himself had said years ago. For anyone wanting to know what Romney might do as President, it was a waste of time. Now someone's bound to ask him what he thinks about Lieberman -- does the endorsement hurt him in New Hampshire? Will Romney also look outside his party for support? And so on. This campaign can't end soon enough.